Epilepsy is a common neurological disorder that affects people of all ages. In children, epilepsy is the second leading cause of disability and death. Across all ages, 2.7 million Americans have epilepsy, which is a greater incidence than for multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, and Parkinson's disease combined.
Epilepsy is a chronic neurological disorder characterized predominantly by recurrent and unpredictable interruptions of normal brain function, called epileptic seizures. An epileptic seizure is a transient occurrence of signs and/or symptoms resulting from abnormal neuronal activity in the brain that is usually excessive, synchronous, or both. Epilepsy is not a singular disease but a variety of disorders reflecting underlying brain dysfunction that may result from many different causes. The disorder may be caused, for example, by abnormality of brain circuitry, imbalance of neurotransmitters, trauma to the brain, infection, or a combination of factors. Regardless of seizure type and cause, the two hallmarks of seizure generation are hyperexcitability of neurons and/or hypersynchrony of neural circuits.
Current epilepsy therapies rely on surgical removal of epileptic foci (e.g., a portion of the hippocampus) or pharmacological intervention with antiepileptic drugs (AEDs). However, current AEDs do not provide an effective prevention or true pharmacotherapeutic cure for epilepsy. In particular, a third of epilepsy patients are not free of seizures despite drug therapy, and in about 30% of patients, the disorder develops into a form with resistance to current AEDs. Furthermore, current AEDs may have various side effects that substantially limit their use. Therefore, new drugs for suppressing epileptic and non-epileptic seizures and methods of screening for new anti-seizure drugs are needed.